A Forgotten Victim of Charlottesville
Tay Washington was marveling at the Charlottesville protests when white nationalist James Fields rammed her car. Nearly two years on, she’s still recovering.
This story is part of The Trump 45, a special package about Trump’s impact on individual lives.
On August 15, 2017, Tay Washington broke down and cried after hearing President Donald Trump blame the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, on “both sides.”
“If Trump didn’t care about someone dying,” the now-29-year-old said recently, tearing up again as she referenced Heather Heyer, the young woman who was killed almost two years ago when a white supremacist drove his car through a crowd of anti-racist protesters, “he didn’t give two cents about my injury.”
A black woman, Washington wasn’t in downtown Charlottesville on August 12, 2017, for the Unite the Right rally, nor was she part of the counterprotest. She was just stuck at a stop sign, sitting in her 2004 white Toyota Camry with the soft black top, her younger sister in the passenger seat, and marveling at the mostly white crowd holding up signs saying “Stand Against Racism” and “Black Lives Matter.”
